Allegations of sexual misconduct against Los Angeles Unified employees have soared since the sex-abuse scandal broke last month at Miramonte Elementary, with complaints ranging from possession of pornography to the rape of a student, according to officials and records.

More than two dozen complaints have been filed against district employees since the arrests of Miramonte teachers Mark Berndt, a Torrance resident, and Martin Springer on Jan. 30 and Feb. 3, respectively.

Officials say the widespread publicity about the Miramonte case in the Florence area heightened public awareness about sexual misconduct and prompted conversations about what is and isn't appropriate in a school setting.

"I think you're seeing more vigilance, that it's come on people's radar," said Earl Perkins, assistant superintendent of school operations. "They're saying to themselves, `Maybe this is right, and maybe it isn't."'

Using iStar, a computerized reporting and tracking system he implemented in April 2010, Perkins compiled a report comparing the numbers of sexual misconduct complaints filed against Los Angeles Unified employees.

From Jan. 16-20 - before Berndt was arrested on suspicion of molesting 23 of his students - the district received no such complaints.

Perkins said the district received just one complaint - an allegation of verbal harassment - from Jan. 23-27.

But during the week after Berndt's arrest on Monday, Jan. 30, the district received nine complaints alleging sexual improprieties against district employees. Sixteen more were filed Feb. 6-10, including eight alleging the incidents occurred one to three years earlier.

According to a separate report prepared by Perkins, one of the complaints filed that week alleged the rape of a student.

That secondary report also said the district had received two complaints of employees possessing pornography and three alleging a sexual relationship with a child. Five were classified simply as inappropriate sexual behavior, which Perkins said could be something like staring at a girl's breasts.

Three other complaints were classified as inappropriate conduct, which would include verbal harassment.

The secondary report did not account for two of the incidents cited in the iStar report.

Also on Feb. 6, the Los Angeles Police Department announced it had arrested Paul Adame, a janitor at Germain Elementary School in Chatsworth, on suspicion of committing a lewd act with a child. Adame is free on $100,000 bail and has not been formally charged.

In announcing the arrest, police noted that the mother of the alleged victim filed a complaint because of publicity in the Miramonte case.

Perkins referred questions about the recent complaints to the district's Human Resources and Police departments. Human Resources officials could not immediately provide information about the cases.

Steve Zipperman, chief of the LAUSD Police Department, said he could not comment on specific complaints.

He noted that the district's police officers do not investigate suspected criminal acts, but report them to the appropriate protective or law enforcement agency. Once that outside agency declares it is not pursuing a criminal case, Human Resources officials will determine whether it can pursue administrative charges.

Under district policy and within the constraints of its labor contracts, Perkins said, employees accused of misconduct are immediately removed from the classroom or campus and "housed" - assigned to work out of the local district office while the allegations are investigated.

That's what happened with Berndt and with Paul Chapel, who was removed from Telfair Elementary on April 15, 2011, after the Los Angeles Police Department began investigating the third-grade teacher for child annoyance.

Chapel remained "housed" until Oct. 8, when he was arrested on charges of continuous sexual abuse and lewd acts involving four children, at least one of whom was a student at the Pacoima campus. He is on unpaid administrative leave and his teaching credential has been suspended.

Parents were not notified of his arrest until last week, when the case was reported in the Daily News, a sister publication of the Daily Breeze. School board member Nury Martinez and Superintendent John Deasy have met with parents several times since then.

Chapel, 51, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He remains jailed on $2.2 million bail.

According to an employment summary provided by the district, Chapel had also been "absent pend(ing) review" from Feb. 27, 1997, to Oct. 9, 1998, while he was a teacher at Andasol Elementary in Northridge.

Officials could not say Thursday the reason for his removal from the classroom. After he was reinstated, he was transferred to Telfair.

Without speaking directly to Chapel's case, Perkins said administrators may opt to transfer an employee to give him or her a "fresh life" after being exonerated of allegations.

Perkins said he is among the administrators working on a district policy on when and how parents should be notified of inappropriate activities that could affect their children.

"Parents are looking for answers, and they should be hearing it from us instead of an outside source," he said. "We want them to get the right information as opposed to the skewed information."